The History of a Dream, The Indypendent #160

This illustration accompanied Nick Power's alternate take on the last ten years, which appeared in the latest issue of The Indypendent.

Cover for The Indypendent #160, All We Need is Hate

Here's the original illustration I did for the latest issue of The Indypendent.




And here's the version that hit the streets. The feature article by Arun Gupta shows how violence is an integral part of the right wing's rhetoric.

Islamophobia Illustration

I did this illustration for an upcoming story on in The Indypendent. The article is on how the right wing use Islamophobia to unify people and fleece them of their money. I'll post a link to the article once it's online.

© Frank Reynoso, Sept. 2010, All Rights Reserved

Media Spin on Flotilla

Did this illo for Arun Gupta's story "The Victim that is Israel" which appeared in the latest issue of The Indypendent. This dramatic story gave me an opportunity to use a more expressionistic style. (I was definitely was looking to Ashley Wood and Brett Weldele for this one.)

© Frank Reynoso, July 2010

Latest Issue of The Indypendent

The latest issue of The Indypendent is out now. With cover art by Lynne Foster and illustrations by Christine Hale, Tim Durning, Leo Garcia, Louis Joe Comeau IV, Brian Ponto, and Jaume Guerra aka Guerruntz.

Some stories that you might be interested in:

American Dreams: Obama Harnesses the Seductive Appeal of an Abstract Ideology by Cyril Ghosh

Obama's Choice: President or King by Ann Schneider

A Stalled Debate on Economy by Arun Gupta

Post-Palin Feminism by Abby Scher

And the feature article Who You Gonna Call? Expectations of Obama's Presidency by John Tarleton

And so much more.

Fearless Cinema: Here’s the Best of This Year’s NYC Horror Film Festival

One of the things that kept me busy lately was writing this review of the NYC Horror Film Fest for The Indypendent. Below is an excerpt.

New York City Horror Film Fest
November 12-16, 2008

Halloween may have come and gone, but as movie ticket sales and rising rentals point out, horror is timeless. And this year’s New York City Horror Film Festival, now in its eighth year, showcased a cornucopia of the interesting, unexpected and the traditional.

Modern monsters (psycho-killers, zombies, urban legends, etc.), a staple of the genre since the 1960s, were well represented in notable films like the action short First Kill, the eerie feature From a Place of Darkness, psycho-short Drip, and the apocalyptic short Antibody. Bmovies — a volatile blend of horror, gusto and laughs — excited audiences with Frank Henelotter’s Bad Biology winning Best Feature and Zoe Polley’s teen gorefest Devil’s Grove. The horrific whodunit Surveillance by Jennifer Chambers Lynch and the monochromatic, antiwar, pantomime Hold Your Fire by Jesse Gordon spoke to fans of intense horror.



Multi-genre films, particularly the sci-fi/horror hybrid, pushed expectations and won audiences over with each showing. The 1980s scifi satire/homage short Martians Go Home follows a sci-fi nerd’s battle with hostile space zombies. Harry Owen can’t escape his short-film existence in the humorous meta-fiction The Glitch. Eel Girl is a sleek and humorous horror- short-cum-music-video. Audience Choice-winning feature Time Crimes (Cronocrimenes) by Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo is a mind-bending mystery that brings out the best of both genres.

Surprisingly, absurd and humorous horror films dominated the fest with provocation and by connecting with audiences. Read rest of review.

© Frank Reynoso, Dec. 2008, All Rights Reserved

How To Create a Bloomzilla

For those of you who are curious about my working methods, here's a walk-through of my recent illustration for The Indypendent.

Keep in mind that I don't have a "fixed" system. Every assignment's different - eg. full-color versus black and white, hand-painted versus digital, etc etc. But below is an example of my general process.

1. I read the text and got a sense of the messages conveyed in the story. (Sometimes the full text isn't ready so an outline or synopsis is all I have to work from.)

With those ideas in mind, I sketched this little dinger. Usually I'll do a series of sketches - four to five or more if I can't "get it right." But considering I only had a couple of days to do this illo, I went with the first idea. (I strongly suggest doing multiple sketches before moving onto the final.)

Most of my "thinking" is done at this point. I look for strong composition and draftsmanship.

2. I plunged into pencils. I went online and used five reference pictures of Bloomberg to make sure I got his likeness. (Note: use multiple references to avoid legal troubles.)

I changed the head's angle so the reader can see his face more.

Though I did most of my thinking at the sketch phase, I still modify things as I move along the process. Surprises can be cool but too many of them can make your final look like a hot mess.

3. Using a couple of brushes, acrylic ink and a micron pen, I inked the bugger.

Any modifications at this point are nominal. Eg, extra hatching in various spots.



4. I scanned it in, cleaned up any blemishes, erased a stray line at the bottom and bumped up the contrast.

With the illo clean, I digitally added grays and sent the final to the designers.




And here it is.

Again, I don't have a "regular system" for doing illustrations. (Recently I've incorporated tracing paper into my illustrations. More on that some other time.)

But I always use the a) think and sketch, b) pencil and modify, and c) ink and finish process for my illustrations.

Hope you had as much fun placating my ego as I did. :)

Rock on,
Frank


© Frank Reynoso, Nov. 2008, All Rights Reserved

Obamania Cover of The Indypendent

Back in August, I illustrated this cover of The Indypendent.















© Frank Reynoso, Oct. 2008, All Rights Reserved

"Adding Fuel to the Fire" Cover of The Indypendent

Looking through The Indypendent's online archives, I came across this cover I illustrated in May 2007.














© Frank Reynoso, Oct. 2008, All Rights Reserved

Slideshow of Economic Crisis Illustrated Essay

My illustrated essay on the economic crisis - written by Arun Gupta - is now an interactive slide show, courtesy of Gary Martin. After enjoying that visual treat, check out the rest of the Indy site.

Economic Crisis Illustrated Essay

Don't forget to check out the illustrated essay that explains how we arrived at the current crisis. The essay's the current top story on The Indypendent site.

© Frank Reynoso, Oct. 2008, All Rights Reserved

New issue of The Indypendent and copies at Small Press Expo

I'll have copies of he latest issue of The Indypendent, with the economic illustrated essay by Arun Gupta and myself, at this year's Small Press Expo (SPX).

The raging cover is by the undeniably talented Gino Barzizza.

"How to Wreck the Economy" Illustrated essay up on Indypendent site

Everything you ever wanted to know about the biggest economic meltown since the Great Depression but were afraid to ask.

You can see a decent version of the illustrated essay at The Indypendent site. But I think it's better in actual print.

I'll have copies of the latest issue with the illustrated essay at this weekend's Small Press Expo.


© Frank Reynoso, Oct. 2008

Jeff Faerber and Rusty Zimmerman art at Repop, Brooklyn

Frequent contributors to The Indypendent, Jeff Faerber and Rusty Zimmerman are showing their amazing work at Repop. Tonight is the opening.

As quote from Jeff's blog:

Rusty Zimmerman and I are having work up at Repop in Brooklyn

68 Washington Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205 US
Friday, October 3, 7:30PM
See Rust's work here:
Rusty Zimmerman dot com





Handsome paintings, vintage furniture, cold beer and wine, and the odd taxidermied head. Join Jeff and Rusty for a drink and a peek at recent paintings by both. 7:30pm to 11:00pm.
Visit www. repopny. com for directions Cheers, --rz and jf

Samples from upcoming illustrated on the economy

Below are some samples of my illustrations for Arun Gupta's essay on the econonmy. The full-colored, essay will appear in the next issue of The Indypendent. Grab a copy.

© Frank Reynoso, Oct. 2, 2008

Illustrated essay on the current Economic Crisis

Arun Gupta of The Indypendent and I, along with the help of numerous people, created an illustrated essay on the current economic crisis. The essay will appear in the upcoming issue of the paper. Keep an eye out for samples and links.

PS. I'm planning to turn this essay into a comic. Though it might not be ready in time for Small Press Expo (SPX).

Cover of The Indypendent #122, June 2008

Here's the illustration I did for the latest issue of the Indypedent. It's a radically different style from the ones I usually do. I'm happy with the way this turned out.

And here's how it was published.

The main story is actually three stories:
The privatization of Everyday life
Verizon's sweetheart deal with NYC
- privatized healthcare
- urban development

Read the other stories at The Indypendent #122. And while you're at it, read the paper.

© Frank Reynoso, June 2008, All Rights Reserved

oh roberts

i was asked to do this illo for the indypendent, but i had no clue what roberts looks like. at home i had a bunch of papers with his mug plastered all over them. this was my first roberts illo. feeling confident that i've captured some of his face, i did the roberts cartoons that appeared in marshal's law and/ or vanilla.

check out my other blogs:
www.marshalslaw.blogspot.com
www.vanillacomix.blogspot.com

more gulf wars

my friend and fellow indy folk, arun gupta, came up with the idea for the illo that accompanied a story he wrote.
www.indypendent.org

They are after us

i really enjoyed doing this piece. besides being so simple, it was a chance for me to do an illustration on something that my friends at work and i have talked about so much. the story was on conspiracy theory and it was published in the indypendent.
www.indypendent.org